


Frère Perdu, Frère Retrouvé

by Insert_Creative_Name_Here



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Clone Troopers as Brothers (Star Wars), First work - Freeform, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Mando'a Language (Star Wars), No Beta We Die Like Clones, based heavily off of meridianpony's work esprit de corps, other members of torrent for like a second
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28472040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insert_Creative_Name_Here/pseuds/Insert_Creative_Name_Here
Summary: Kix has never been alone before. It's not something he'd wanted to get used to, until he found himself fifty years in the future, with different numbers fighting a different war in a galaxy so unfamiliar that he can barely believe it's the one he knows.Finn isn't a clone, but he's a vod nonetheless. He's finally out of the First Order, his new brothers are by his side, and he has a clear mission - take down his old bosses - until he sees a familiar face across a room.Or, two vod walk into a bar. One is lost, the other has just been found. They're not the same. But in another time, they could've been.
Relationships: Finn & CT-6116 | Kix
Comments: 15
Kudos: 115





	Frère Perdu, Frère Retrouvé

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Esprit de Corps](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211745) by [meridianpony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianpony/pseuds/meridianpony). 



> Happy 2021, everyone! I figured, what better way to start off the new year than by posting my first work!
> 
> This is very heavily inspired by meridianpony's Esprit de Corps. It probably won't make sense without reading that first, but for anyone who doesn't want to read it, the gist is that Finn can see the ghosts of all of the clones, who help him escape the first order.
> 
> Mando'a translations are in the end notes.

Fifty years. Kix has been frozen for fifty kriffing years. 

The crew of the Meson Martinet had explained as much as they could when they'd found him, but they didn't know everything. Two galactic wars and an evil Empire had thoroughly scrambled the lens of history.

He'd thought that losing Hardcase was bad, that losing Fives had been worse. That thousands of brothers dying every single day for a pointless war was hell, but now the war is over. The Republic is gone, destroyed by the men that had sworn to protect it. By the men that Kix had tried to save.

The men that are dead. All 6 million of them. Every single brother is gone, and Kix is alone.

The first time the Meson Martinet stops at a town, Kix grabs a datapad and does as much research as he can. He almost throws up when he realizes that his brothers had become stormtroopers with barely any more sentience than a droid, that only a handful out of millions had made it out, that Captain Rex had made it out but even he was long dead, that Prime's actual kid had dropped off the grid years ago.

Most days, it’s unbearable. Clones aren't meant to be alone. Back during the war, if he'd ended up alone, Kix had at least had the comfort of knowing that his brothers were out there, somewhere, even though it wasn't with him. Right up until he'd been frozen, he'd still had that glimmer of hope, that someone would come and rescue him. That he'd open his eyes, and it'd be Rex and Jesse looking down at him, pulling him out of the cryopod. That they'd find him, but they didn't. They couldn't, because Kix had stupidly decided not to tell either of them where he was going. He'd tried to save all of his brothers, and in return, he'd been left without a single one. It was almost suffocating, too painful to think about his failures, his mistakes, how the whole kriffing galaxy fell into chaos because he wasn't good enough-

And there he goes again. Thinking. Kix has been trying to do less of that, recently. His thoughts just refuse to stop spiraling into very unhealthy territory. He's a medic, damn it. He should know how to deal with these thoughts. It's his job - no, it was his job, before-

Kix shakes his head, as if he can physically dislodge the thought. That's another thing. When he isn't being mentally crushed under the weight of his mistakes and sheer loneliness, he'll sometimes manage to actually forget that he's not on the Resolute. He's used to being within 45 feet of another brother basically at all times, and when he's tired enough, or distracted enough, his instincts take over, and he reaches for _vod’e_ that aren't there. Those moments happen less and less as the months go by, and Kix is almost grateful. Almost. The moment when he snaps back to reality and remembers that yes, he's alone is horrible, but before that?

Sometimes, it's the only thing keeping him going.

Most days, he's just going through the motions. If he thinks about anything too hard, then he remembers where he is, and he's somewhat content to live in a state of denial. Kix knows that he has to move on, eventually, but for now he takes time to grieve.

After all, there's six million brothers to mourn.

* * *

Maz Kanata's castle is like nothing Finn's ever seen before.

There's so many people, so many different species, cultures, languages, lives shoved into this chaotic mess of a building. Finn thinks he likes it. It's nothing like anything that the First Order had, and that's good enough for him.

The clones seem to like it, too. Torrent is with Finn today, and they mill around the room, seeming perfectly at home amongst the varying patrons. Finn remembers Fives mentioning a bar called 79's on Coruscant that the clones would frequent. Maybe this reminds them of that.

Next to him, Rey looks equally in awe of the castle. Finn remembers that she'd spent her whole life on Jakku, in a wildly different but achingly familiar state of isolation and loneliness.

"I don't think I've ever seen so much color in my life," he says, to remind Rey that he's also new to all of this, that she isn't alone in her confusion and wonder.

She nods. "Everything on Jakku was brown. I-I didn't realize how boring it was, until now."

"It's beautiful."

"It really is," she whispers, as if she's afraid that talking too loud will break the illusion.

Finn gets it. He feels like an outsider here, in this place that's so obviously full of history and personality. But then again, he thinks as he looks around, everyone here is a bit of an outsider.

One of the _vod_ starts yelling. Hardcase, he thinks, but it's hard to tell over the noise of the castle.

"Guys! Get over here," he shouts, waving his arms above his head. "Finn! _Vod'ika_! Come on!"

Finn pushes his way over to where the vod - it is Hardcase - is standing and the other clones are congregating, and gasps.

Sitting at a table with an armor-clad man and an alien that Finn isn't familiar with is a clone. A live clone, not a ghost, like he's used to seeing. He can't help gaping - this is part of what he's been looking for, after all.

"Finn," Rex hisses. "Go get a drink, so you can stand around without looking suspicious."

Finn obliges. He doesn't want to accidentally start something and scare off the vod that he just so happened to bump into. He leans - hopefully - casually on a nearby wall, drinking his drink and trying not to look strange.

"Is that Kix?" he says into his glass.

Fives nods. "Dunno what he's doing here, though."

Jesse lets out a wet laugh that sounds a bit like a sob. Finn remembers hearing that him and Kix had been inseparable before Kix disappeared.

"He looks terrible," Jesse says, stepping closer to the table.

Finn looks at Kix, slumped on the table, head braced in his hands. His expression is blank, the kind of blank that suggests he's shoving his emotions down. Finn has seen it reflected on almost every single vod. There's a bottle on the table in front of him. Finn doesn't know what the words on the label mean, but Jesse winces when he reads them.

"Kriff. That's strong," he says, crouching down across from Kix.

"What do we do?" Finn asks. He barely knows anything about Kix, but his _vod'e_ know him better than anyone.

"Recruit him to the Resistance?" Tup offers.

"Would he go?" Finn asks.

"Maybe," Rex says. "I don't know if he'd be too eager to join another war, especially without any of us."

"Can you even recruit him? You're not actually in the Resistance," Echo points out.

"What about the people he's with? Would he want to leave them?" Finn wonders.

"If you tell him we're with you? He might." Rex says. "I know after Order 66, if someone told me that they had a way to talk to my dead _vod'e_ and had proof of it, I'd listen to them."

"Talk to him," Fives says. "We'll be here to help you. I don't think Kix knows ARC sign, so you can use that to talk to us."

"He knows a bit," Jesse speaks up. "I taught him some, after I became an ARC. I don't know how much he remembers, though, because he's drunk, and it's probably been a few years since anyone's used it around him."

Finn nods and walks up to the table. "Uh, hello," he says. An amazing start, he's sure. Kix looks up at him, but doesn't say anything.

"Whaddaya want?" the alien who's species Finn doesn't know grunts.

"I was wondering if I could speak to your medic," Finn says. The alien looks at him suspiciously, and Kix jerks up, looking closer at Finn. He sees the man in the crimson armor shift in his seat.

"How'd ya know he's a medic?" the alien asks.

"That's a long story."

"Who are you?" Kix asks.

"That's a longer story."

Kix and the alien look over to the armored man, who nods. "We've got time," the alien says. "Start talking."

"The red guy's got a blaster," Hardcase says. "Be careful."

Finn breathes out, swirling his drink. "This is going to sound crazy, but I know you, Kix." There's no visible reaction, but Finn has learned that the clones are good at keeping their emotions to themselves, when they need to. They had to. "I know your brothers. All of them."

"They're alive?" Kix asks, an absolutely heartbreaking look of reluctant hope of his face. Finn hates that he has to tell him no, all of his brothers are dead. He shakes his head.

"No. I'm so sorry, but they're-they're not. They're gone."

"You came all the way here to tell me something I already know?" Kix grips the bottle, his knuckles turning white. "How do you know who I am? No one should know anything about me. No one should know I still exist!"

Finn forces himself to remain calm. Kix is grieving, he reminds himself. "This didn't go the way I wanted it to," he says. A clone snorts, and Finn signs _kriff off_ behind his back. "I'm not great at this whole talking thing. I'll start over."

"I'm a deserter," he says. Quietly, of course, he's still paranoid about someone overhearing him. "I was a stormtrooper for the First Order, but they're horrible, so I left. I didn't have a choice to fight for them. We were trained and conditioned from birth, like you."

"Don't compare me to them," Kix spits out. "We were nothing like them."

Finn lowers his head in apology. "Sorry. But the point stands. We were brainwashed. I wouldn't have thought anything of the atrocities that they committed if it wasn't for your brothers."

"But they're dead."

"Yes, but for some reason, I can see them. I don't know why, but they're like ghosts. Every single clone ever made is here. They helped me see what was wrong with the First Order, and I made my way out while freeing a Resistance Commander."

Jesse steps into his field of vision, leaning on the table. "He thinks you're full of shit." Finn looks at Kix, and sure enough, Kix looks like he can't decide whether to ask Finn a million questions, or punch him in the jaw.

"You expect me to believe that?" Kix says, staring Finn down with what he recognizes as the patented Medic Glare that he'd gotten from some of the clone medics before. "Ghosts aren't real, and even if they were, clones aren't Jedi. We can't break the rules of nature like they can."

"I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I'm telling the truth. They're here right now, with me."

Kix stiffens. "They're here?" Finn nods. "Who?"

"Torrent Company."

Kix is silent, staring down Finn. The silence stretches. "You swear you're not lying?" he says, eventually.

"I swear."

"Prove it. Tell me something only one of them would know."

"Okay." _Tell me something about him_ , Finn signs. He sees Kix's eyes dart down to his hands, but he remains silent.

"When we were fighting on Saleucami," Rex speaks up, "I got shot. Kix, Jesse, and Hardcase brought me to a civilian farmhouse to try and treat me. The twi'lek who lived there was less than pleased to have us, but she let us stay. After Kix got me stabilized, two twi'lek kids ran into the barn where we were staying, and told me I looked like their father."

Finn repeats Rex's story to Kix, who smiles sadly. "Rex told me the father's name, after-after Umbara."

"His name was Cut Lawquane," Rex says, and Finn parrots it.

"A deserter," Kix muses. "Just like us."

"You're not a deserter," Finn says. "You were a prisoner of war, if anything."

"Technically," Jesse pipes up, "he was a deserter."

"No, I was a deserter," Kix says at the same time. "I left the GAR to investigate the-" he trails off, takes a deep breath, "the chips. I was the only vod alive who knew exactly how horrible they were, and I got myself carbon frozen. A fat load of good that did." He raises his drink in a mock toast. " _Vod'e an_ , and all that," he says, and chugs the rest of his drink.

Finn sits down across from Kix. "They don't blame you, you know." Kix snorts. "They don't. They just miss you. A lot."

Kix stares at him, for a while. He opens his mouth, as if to ask a question, but closes it again. He looks at the armored man and the alien. None of them say anything, and Finn has no idea what they're doing, but the man nods.

"Can we move this outside?" Kix asks. "I have questions, but this whole conversation sounds suspicious enough to an outsider. I don't exactly want the First Order to come looking for me, and I assume you don't either."

"Yeah, no," Finn says. "Let's move."

* * *

Kix follows the stormtrooper outside.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a very, very dumb idea. His instincts are screaming at him to turn around, go back inside, leave the kid, this is a trap, _di'kut_ ; but his heart is telling him that the kid is telling the truth.

And his heart told him to trust Fives, all those years - decades - ago, so he's inclined to listen to it.

The kid stops to talk to an old man and a Wookie for a second, and then they're out the door.

"Who are they?" Kix asks.

"Han Solo and Chewbacca. They helped take down the Empire, apparently."

"Kid, I missed the entire Empire and the New Republic. That means literally nothing to me."

"It doesn't mean much to me, either. The First Order didn't tell us about anything we didn't need to know."

Just like the Kaminoans, then. Home sweet home.

They walk around the side of Maz Kanata's castle, and the kid leans on the wall.

"What's your name, kid?" Kix asks.

"FN-21-" the kid cuts off. "Finn. Call me Finn." Finn's eyes dart around the area, landing on Kix's face. He's tense, like he thinks he's about to be reprimanded for having a name. Just like the clones were, before they realized that most of the Jedi actually saw them as people, and cared about them as individuals.

"Hey. Finn. Calm down," he says, putting extra emphasis on Finn's name. "No one's going to reprimand you for having a name. Not here. Not anymore." Finn gives him a weak smile. "It's okay. I get it."

Finn relaxes, leaning in a bit towards Kix when Kix moves to stand next to him. He swears he can almost feel Finn's relief that yes, someone actually does get it, that Kix understands in a way that no one else ever could.

Kix isn't a stormtrooper, and Finn isn't a clone.

But maybe they aren't so different.

Kix has so many questions. About Jesse and Rex, about all of his brothers, about the end of the Clone War, the Empire, the First Order, but they can wait a bit. There are more important things right now.

"How did you even find me?" Kix asks. If Finn had been looking for him and actually managed to find him while Kix was trying his best to stay off the grid, then anyone who was trying to find the last living member of the GAR could probably find him too.

"I- uh, didn't exactly mean to."

Well that's reassuring, Kix thinks. The karking Force at it again, probably.

"I was actually trying to find the Resistance. We came here to find a new ship, since our old one was being tracked," Finn explains.

"You're here with that Commander?" Kix can't help but think of Cody, and Wolffe, and Fox - karking Fox - and allows himself to think only for a split second, that this Commander has nothing on his.

Then he shuts that train of thought down. It's been two years since he woke up, but it's still too painful to think of his _vod'e_. Probably always will be.

Finn winces. "No. He's dead. Probably."

Kix raises an eyebrow at the probably part, but doesn't comment.

Finn continues talking. "Poe - that's the Commander - and I crashed on Jakku. I was knocked out, and when I woke up, he was gone. I found his droid with a girl named Rey, and the three of us made it off Jakku before the First Order could capture us. Our ship started breaking down, and then Han and Chewbacca found us. They were the original owners of the ship." Finn gestures to their surroundings. "Then we ran into some pirates, and now we're here."

Kix nods, digesting the information. "What's so important about the droid?"

"Apparently, BB-8 contains a map to the last Jedi. His name's Luke Skywalker."

Kix jerks, whirling around to gape at Finn. "Sorry, did you say Skywalker?"

Finn snorts. "Torrent had the exact same reaction."

The General had a kid. The General had a karking kid. No wonder the galaxy's gone downhill so fast. Kix admires Skywalker, he really does, but that man was a disaster. The last thing the galaxy needed during the war was more Skywalkers.

Finn tilts his head a bit to the side, then laughs quietly. "Fives says that the kid is a mess, but the General was definitely worse."

"No one can out-disaster General Skywalker," Kix says.

"Rex says that Luke's mother is Senator Amidala, and that they were about as subtle as a bantha in a china shop."

In any other circumstance, Kix would be cracking a joke about Amidala and Skywalker and how they couldn't be subtle even if their lives depended on it, but Finn mentioning his brothers so casually has his mind latching onto that instead. Rex. And Fives. They're here. They’re actually - probably - here. Kix's throat is suddenly dry. His heart is pounding.

"My- my brothers," he manages. "Can you tell them something for me?"

"They can hear you," Finn smiles. "Tell them yourself."

Kix takes a shaky breath. " _Vod'e, n-ner vod'e_. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. _Ni ceta_."

"Echo says that there's nothing to be sorry for," Finn states.

"But I left you, Echo. I left you and Rex and Jesse-" his voice breaks, "-and it's not okay. It's not okay, _vod. Ni ceta, ni ceta_."

Finn tilts his head to the side, but doesn't say anything. After a bit, he laughs softly. "Mind if I shorten that a bit?" Another pause, and then he nods. "Fine. Jesse says, and I quote, 'Kix, _vod_ , that is the single dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I hang out around Fives and Hardcase. It isn't your fault. None of us are mad at you. Yes, we're dead and you're not, and that's not okay, but most of us have been dead far longer than we've been alive, anyways.'"

Kix gives a weak laugh. "It sounds like you're planning on killing me."

"Jesse says he will if you don't stop blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault. And they're not wrong, Kix," Finn says. Kix gives him a look. "They're not. I wouldn't blame you if I was in their scenario. I know it probably doesn't mean anything coming from me, but-"

"No, no. It helps. Thank you."

Kix looks out over the field surrounding Maz Katana's castle and the forests further away; at all of their colors, the greens and browns and splashes of yellow. He remembers the first time that he left Kamino, for the battle of Geonosis. He remembers the shock and awe he felt upon landing and realizing that the planet wasn't white. It was orange. A muted orange, more like a bright brown, but it wasn't white. The feeling, the realization that there was enough color in the universe to cover a whole planet is something that he's never forgotten.

From what he's heard about the First Order, there's less color on their starships than there was on Kamino. Finn deserves to see the galaxy at its most colorful, to see that there's more to life than endless white.

"So now that you're out of the First Order, you're going to try and take it down," Kix says.

Finn nods. "Yeah. I need to find the Resistance, but I don't know how. I've got a group of people with me who are looking for it as well." He glances at Kix. "We could use a medic for our journey."

"Are you asking me to come with you?"

"If you want."

Fighting another war isn't something that Kix really wants to do. The Clone Wars messed him up enough. But Finn is his only link to his brothers, and he's a good kid, and he's looking at Kix with a face full of raw hope. Kix looks at him, looks at that expression and he thinks of Dogma, of Tup, of the Domino Twins, of all the shinies he'd seen come and go throughout the years.

Force damn it. He's attached. He's found himself another shiny to take care of.

"Kriff, kid. You really want me to come with you, huh?"

"I'm not going to make you, if you don't want to. You've already fought in one useless war, and-and I know you're probably not jumping at the chance to fight in another, but you'll probably be drawn in anyway. You're the last living clone trooper, and this is going to spiral into a full-on galactic war, I just know it."

Kix sighs. "It probably will. No one can keep their noses in their own business." He mulls it over a bit, but he's already made his decision. "It's not like I have anything else to do."

"So you'll come?" Finn asks.

"Yeah. I'll come," he says. "It'll be good to fight for something that I chose to fight for."

Finn cheers. "Yes! I'll go tell Han." He gets up.

"I should tell Ithano," Kix says. He sees a look of confusion on Finn's face and clarifies, "He's the captain of the ship that found me."

"Your brothers are proud of you, Kix. I thought you should know," Finn says, before turning around to jog back to the castle. "Meet me inside when you're ready."

Kix smiles. A real, genuine smile, for the first time since he's woken up.

When Hosnian Prime explodes overhead, and the First Order comes sweeping through the landscape, turning green into brown and ashy black, Kix knows he made the right choice.

When the Resistance comes flying overhead, their X-wings so different from the ships that he's used to but so similar in the way they fly, Kix starts thinking that maybe some good will come out of this.

It'll be nice to fight for something he chose, for once.

* * *

Kix dies in a firefight five years later, and he can't even bring himself to be mad about it. He's just a bit annoyed at how it happened.

He's lying on the ground, bleeding out from multiple blaster wounds and seven years ago, back during the Clone Wars, he'd be pissed about it. He'd probably force himself to get up and treat just one more brother before he collapsed. Maybe he'd make it to a gunship out of spite to the Force.

But there's no brothers here. No gunships, no battle droids, no war. They're picking off remnants from the First Order, and one faction turned out to be a lot bigger than they thought. They started shooting, so the Resistance - although they can't really call themselves that anymore - started shooting back. Kix didn't make it behind cover in time.

That's it. That's all. Kix survived two wars (he doesn't count the Galactic Civil War) and fifty years frozen in carbonite, and he dies to a ragtag group of ex-Order troopers. He can almost hear Rex calling him an idiot.

Then he sees a blue figure appear out of nowhere, and he realizes that he actually _can_ hear Rex yelling at him.

" _Di'kut,_ Kix. You kriffing _di'kut_. You can't survive all that you have and die here. That's illegal. I'll get Cody to make it illegal."

Kix coughs. "It's not like I want to die here," he says, somewhat deliriously. Blaster fire streaks around him, but it passes through Rex standing over him, like he's not even there.

Rex chokes. "You-you can hear me?"

"Depends. Am I hallucinating?"

"No."

"Sounds like something a hallucination would say."

Rex laughs. It's a nice sound. Kix forgot how nice it is, to hear a brother's laugh. A brother's voice, other than his own.

"I'm real, vod. I'm in the afterlife that Finn told you about. You'll be here too, soon," Rex says, smiling.

"So I'm dying, then." Kix says. It's not a question. His vision is blurring. He's dizzy. He knows what's going to happen.

Rex nods. "Yeah."

"Cool."

"You seem awfully calm, for someone who's about to die."

Kix breathes in. Breathes out. It's a lot harder than it should be. "At this point," he says, "it feels like it's been a long time coming."

The battle has stopped. Everything is quiet and for once in his life, Kix doesn't hear the sound of blasterfire echoing in his head. Then there's footsteps behind him, and Finn walks into his line of sight, his commander - now co-general - right behind him.

"Kix!" Finn says, kneeling down beside him. "Are you alright?"

Kix coughs again, more painful than before, and glares at Finn. He hopes that Finn gets the message.

"He's dying, Finn," Rex speaks up.

"Oh."

General Dameron - Poe - taps Finn on the shoulder. "Is he…"

"He's dying."

Kix goes into a coughing fit. "Not… dead yet," he manages to choke out.

"Good," Poe says. "Good. We can still save you." He kneels down beside Kix, and pulls out a medpack.

"Don't," Kix says. Poe looks at him in surprise. "I've been- I've been looking forward to seeing my brothers again."

Poe doesn't want Kix to die. Even with his vision blurring, Kix can see it written all over his face.

He understands what Poe is feeling. He remembers trying to save every dying brother he could, but as he struggles to take another breath, he knows that he’s past saving.

The sky on this planet is beautiful, Kix thinks, as figures upon ghostly figures appear around him. This isn’t a terrible place to die, he thinks.

The world goes black.

* * *

Kix comes to, standing above his own dead body. He looks down, and oh, that’s weird. He can see through his hands.

So this is what being dead is like. Kix expected it to involve less thinking.

“Kix!” he hears from behind him. He turns around right as something barrels into him with enough force that it should knock him over. Instead, he just stumbles backwards.

Kix looks at the figure clinging to him. He’d recognize that tattoo anywhere.

“Jesse,” he whispers, wrapping his arms around him and burying his head in Jesse’s shoulder.

“I missed you, _vod_. I missed you so kriffing much,” Jesse says, his voice thick.

“I missed you, too, _di’kut_.”

“Hey, don’t hog him all to yourself, Jesse,” another voice says. “You’re not the only one who’s waited fifty years to find him.”

Kix looks up to see Hardcase standing behind Jesse, with a group of other vod’e. It’s most of Torrent Company, he realizes, plus a few others. Tup and Dogma, Echo and Fives. Rex and Cody.

“Kriff off,” Jesse says, holding onto Kix tighter. 

“You asked for it,” Hardcase laughs, runs around to Kix’s back and joins the hug. The others follow, and soon Kix is in the middle of a giant group hug.

He didn’t realize how much he’d missed this.

They let him go, eventually, and Kix sees Finn smiling at him. At his ghost. 

“Thank you, Finn,” he says. “I-I don’t know where I would have ended up if you hadn’t convinced me to go with you.”

Finn smiles even wider. “Thank you for teaching me how to be a person. I’ll make sure that the galaxy doesn’t forget about you guys.”

“That’s all we can ask of you,” Rex says.

“Goodbye, _vod’e_.” Kix can see tears prickling at the corners of Finn’s eyes, but he’s still smiling.

“So now that we’re all here,” Jesse says. “What happens?”

“I guess we move on,” Fives speaks up. “To the next life, or to the halls of Manda, or whatever the hell is next. But we go together.”

“Together,” Kix says.

* * *

Finn watches the _vod’e_ disappear.

He’s going to miss them a lot, but he’s happy that they’re all together again. That they can finally move on, after decades of waiting. 

“Are they gone?” Poe asks.

Finn nods, a tear slipping down his cheek.

“I’ll miss Kix, but at least they’re together again.”

Finn slips his hand into Poe’s, squeezing it once. He looks at the destroyed remnants of the First Order around them; at Kix’s body, dead but finally truly happy; at the man he loves.

“We won,” he says. “I think I can really say that now.

“We won.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr as elipson. Come say hi!
> 
> Mando'a Translations:
> 
> vod('e) - brother(s)  
> vod'ika - little brothers  
> Vod'e an - brothers all  
> di'kut - idiot  
> ner vod'e - my brothers  
> ni ceta - I'm sorry


End file.
